


give me your hand

by letterfromathief



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 18:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17751239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letterfromathief/pseuds/letterfromathief
Summary: She means to say, “What?” She means to say, “Seriously, um, what?”She meant to say “What are you even talking about?” It really, really is what she meant to say. But between brain and mouth, instinct takes control - to defend Trini from even a hint that being with her is worse in any possible way. Instinct meets impulse, so what she actually says is:“Yeah. Yeah, it is, thanks.”-In which Ty thinks Kim is dating Trini... and Kim neglects to disagree.





	give me your hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSecondBatgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/gifts).



> **Minor, but semi-important head-canons for this fic (that neglect anything established in the comic that i have not read):** a) Jason is pretty much a dating noob - like besides an implied crush on Kim (which was basically just the pre-stages of mlm/wlw solidarity) was it ever implied that Jason had anything more going on besides football?  
> b) Ty is not a complete piece of shit, which is another reason why Kim hates and is so angry at herself  
> c) Angel Grove is a hot mess of a town even before Rita and the Megazord remodel it
> 
> -
> 
> this was supposed to be way angstier than it turned out, which i think, is much much better. with a february this empty of proper snow, i needed to write something to lighten my mood
> 
> special thanks to the mods for organizing this and giving me a reason to finally start writing fic for this movie, and esp @kathillards for putting up with my failure of a self
> 
> and ofc thank you to @thesecondbatgirl for giving me a prompt to remind me just how incapable i am of brevity. i loved and stressed over writing this for you and i hope you enjoy

Kim snags the last greasy fry. She’s licking her fingers – not her best look to be sure, but it is satisfaction, not embarrassment that alights her face when Trini sticks her hand in the carton and comes up empty with an angry huff.

“You cheated.”

Trini is right; Kim played dirtier than her fingers. With her clean hand, she reaches into her bag for the wet wipes.

“You weren’t paying attention. I saw my opening and I took it.”

Trini glowers but she can’t deny Kim’s ingenious use of –

She looks past Trini for the distraction that let her take this much needed win. She’s surprised. It’s a pink dress of a softer shade than Kim usually likes. Everything about it is soft – tulle, lace, and delicate white threading in the shape of wings, not a bird but just the suggestion of flight. It’s pretty, but not exactly, or at all Trini’s taste.

She’s more than a little skeptical at this being why Trini lost out on the last of the perfectly crisp, salted, and well-known as the “best fries in Angel Grove.” She looks around the display for a camo jacket, something more punk-Addams family and less Debbie, but it’s just more pastels. A light blue skirt there, a mint green cold-shoulder on the hook beside it.

She throws a questioning look at Trini, and they both rush to speak at the same time.

“This is pretty.” “You’d look amazing in this.”

“What?” “Yeah, right? Pretty, and totally your type.”

“But -”

This time Trini’s silent. She glances at the dress, her expression lacking its previous luster, the shine wearing off with uncertainty.

“I thought you were looking for something for your parents’ dinner party.”

The accusation in her words draws frown lines across Trini’s forehead in a shape not dissimilar to the grumpy suspicion she hits Kim with at every loss.

Somehow, in the midst of battling Trini for fries and finishing up her second frozen lemonade, Kim had completely forgotten why she’d drafted Trini for this mall visit in the first place. “Drafted” being Trini’s response to Kim’s goading reminder that “teammates always help each other,” and her begging addition of, “Please, please help me pick a dress for my parents’ party.”

“Oh. Yeah, actually, I’m not sure I’m -” She corrects herself, “That it’s needed anymore.”

Kim shrugs. The picture incident had thrown the necessity of showing off “perfect daughter Kim” up in the air. She’s brought out at select moments now, depending on the client, the party’s focus, or whether any of them had heard about what Kim had done before all their parents got together and decided that the situation could be fixed over hor d’oeuvres, wine, and revised contracts.

This morning, before she left the house, she’d asked what kind of outfit she would need. Her mom had said, “Whatever you want, Kimmy,” and her dad had been even more disinterested and only hummed agreement to her mother’s words. It wasn’t the worst sign. Denying her entirely would’ve been a recap of just how “ashamed, appalled, and disappointed” they were in her behavior, as if she could forget the feeling that hits her in the middle of a quiet night when she wakes up to a silent phone.

She still hasn’t gotten used to that.

Nor the way the wind blows on her bare neck, how her feet still sometimes start in the direction of the locker room when the bell rings last period.

Kim finds her voice quiet when she says, “Maybe we’ll just window shop today.” She bites the inside of her cheek. She didn’t mean to sound so pathetic.

She turns to move but Trini doesn’t. It throws Kim off – this she’s gotten used to, how she and Trini always seem to be in sync. Not the mirrored motions of a well-choreographed cheer, but how Trini could go left, Kim could go right, and they’d both end up moving along the same path.

Trini doesn’t move.

Instead she says, “If you’re sure.” In a rush of breath, “Maybe you should get it just in case. It would look really great on you and there’s only one left in your size.”

Kim’s heart sets off in flight, beating at the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. Too young for a heart attack aside, she’s sure her power coin would set in if she was really at risk of dying. So the fact that she can’t calm it – that it’s so uncontrolled at all must be –

Because of what Kim hasn’t been thinking about…Not exactly? Not all the time? But when Trini smiles at her, it’s the only thing on her mind: she has a crush.

It isn’t the butterflies in her stomach kind, but of the “I’d probably stand on my head if it would make her laugh” variety, with all the exhilaration and thrill that comes with doing something dangerous – for her life, because Kim could probably do it, but Trini would probably do the same and better. It would just lead back to them competing for who can pull off this cliff dive faster, who can scale the mountain backwards first, who can doodle a better flip book.

Dangerous for her heart, because the competitions would be a lot more like flirting if that wasn’t just the nature of their team, except for Billy who considers things more before he does them and so usually ends up watching over the wreckage of their impulsiveness. That wreckage usually being them, and more often than not, Trini and Zack.

He tends to end up more worse for wear. It’s the height difference; Trini compensates for it, and Zack still hasn’t managed to see her coming.

Which is fair. Kim didn’t see her coming either. Not until her heart was pounding every time it seemed like there was something _more_ , and turned out to be nothing but Kim coming very close to being very embarrassing.

“It’s fine,” she manages to finally reply.

Trini glances away from her and raises her hands in defeat, “I just mean that this is a pretty lucky pick. All the clothes I buy online usually go so fast, and then you’re stuck in a bidding war with Glinda_the_Darkest_Witch42 over the vintage beanie to go with your boots. At least here, the price is set.”

Kim giggles as she notes Trini’s steel-heeled boots and then the beanie sticking out of Trini’s bag, a matching pattern to the laces of those boots, with the inner patch folded out so everyone can see the steel grey that matches Trini’s heels. She hears Zack mocking it, “ _Crazy girl,”_ said with the fondness of knowing she isn’t any more than they all are.

“It’s really okay. Let’s go, Round 52. I’m craving Cinnabon.”

“No cheating this time. I’m winning fair and square.” Trini holds her hands squared together, and then presses the ‘L’ of her right hand to Kim’s forehead. “Ready, loser?”

Kim laughs, almost so hard that it hurts. Eventually, once she gets the giggles under control, she straightens and grabs hold of Trini’s arm to pull the ‘L’ away and drag her out the store in the direction of Cinnabon. Kim leads because Trini still gets lost here, having only ventured into the mall when she first came to Angel Grove to impress her parents. Kim used to spend about 75% of her non-study time here, elbow to elbow with –

She hears them first, sees them second, and some mad dash of time between then, her motion goes from moving Trini’s hand to holding it. Her other curls into a fist that is…offensive? Defensive? Or just the physical manifestation of the grip that she needs to get on herself.

Trini doesn’t pull away. Kim only has a moment to acknowledge the hummingbird in her chest before she motions towards the opposite store exit. They move together, hand in hand.

Hand in hand out the store and smack dab into Kim’s ex. Trini slams into Ty’s chest, hand first, and Kim grabs onto his arm. They’re able to break their fall and steady themselves – without having to let go of each other.

When Kim tightened her hold on Trini as they collided, Trini didn’t and still hasn’t pulled away, holding on to Kim just as tightly.

Ty stumbles back with a wince, echoed by a pained grunt. When he catches himself – before Kim catches herself, caught herself somehow between one problem and the next – he says, “First you punch my tooth out and now you stiff arm me? Tag team, too?”

Kim’s mouth shifts around words. An apology gets tangled with another apology and another: the collision, the tooth, the trajectory she started that led them here to begin with. Beside her, Trini vibrates. It’s like their unmorphed energy, when they’re not sure if the suits are necessary but they ready themselves for the probability. Trini’s energy feels yellow – the flame of a candle, a bonfire, the sun, all burning, burning.

It’s in her head. The heat she feels is just because she’s holding Trini’s hand too tight.

Still, she doesn’t let go.

“I’m sorry, Ty,” Kim apologizes finally.

It strikes her how really, this is the first time she’s said it. Of course, she’d given forced apologies after excuses and shifted blame didn’t make the situation go away. She’d apologized to his parents, Amanda’s parents, the principal and vice principal, the dean and the guidance counselor, but never to him.

It strikes her how, really, this is the first apology she’s well and truly meant.

“It’s cool.”

He actually grins, and if Kim had started to match Trini’s energy with her apology, she isn’t anymore, caught so off guard by the smile that in her life before detention and saving the world, some days, she did most anything to see and, too often, she didn’t want to see at all.

His smile shifts from Kim to Trini. “I know Kim’s got good aim, already, but Trini,” He winks, “ _Not_ Di-di, how is your throwing arm?”

“Ty,” Kim protests.

“Our team needs a quarterback,” he explains to them both.

What the hell are they supposed to say to that, or any of this? Kim never imagined their post-op conversation would go like this. Why would she? She was the liar who punched his tooth out and nearly got him kicked off the team for something she never thought would mean, well, anything at all.

Honestly, this feels way worse than any of the nightmares she’s conjured up because she has no idea what to say to this person she doesn’t know, could never imagine Ty being.

“I’m joking,” he adds when they don’t reply. “Feel free to laugh.”

“Ha.”

It’s not even sarcasm, just an expulsion of air. She didn’t mean to make a sound.

“My throwing arm is almost as good as Jason’s, but I’m not a quarterback.”

Trini says this, with her hand still in Kim’s and yet managing a stance that says, “I can drag Kimberly around and _still_ kick your ass.”

_The stance of a Power Ranger._

“There’s only one Jason,” Ty agrees. The sour note isn’t pleasant but it isn’t hate – not like it was when their team first heard about Jason’s knee and the loss of a winning season that was just short of locked in.

“I’ve seen you two together,” Ty nods.

Kim stiffens – Trini does, too.

“You guys look good together.”

At that, Kim shifts uncomfortably but Trini remains still.

“I’m glad he finally has friends.” She lifts an eyebrow. Trini makes a sound like ‘huh’ but soft, so Kim isn’t sure if it’s surprise, disbelief or just in her imagination. “That you’re his friends. He’s better off and,” he looks at Trini as Kim murmurs her own, ‘huh’ under her breath, “I guess dating you is better for her than dating me.”

She means to say, “What?” She means to say, “Seriously, um, _what_?”

She _meant_ to say “What are you even talking about?” It really, really is what she meant to say. But between brain and mouth, instinct takes control - to defend Trini from even a hint that being with her is worse in any possible way. Instinct meets impulse, so what she actually says is:

“Yeah. Yeah, it is, thanks.”

“Congrats, ladies.”

The ease of his reply is utterly disarming.

Amanda calls out Ty’s name, and is quickly followed by the echoes of cheerleaders and the whoops of Angel Grove’s Tigers. He looks over Kim’s head and waves a hand. She’s about to sprint past him – it’s not a life or death situation, but she’s afraid if she’s caught in her old life, she’ll morph just to prove that she isn’t that person anymore. He directs his attention to her before she can, says, “See you around.”

Like an afterthought, like their relationship is finally getting their post-credits scene, he says, “Thanks for punching my tooth out. They put it back better than before.” He flashes his smile, a shining white row of perfectly aligned teeth, and before everyone can fall upon her and Trini, jogs past her and out the other exit.

Their voices move away – good, because neither Kim nor Trini have, so disarmed by the “congrats” and the smile that she can’t possibly run away. She can’t even move.

“What just happened?”

“I have no idea.”

What Kim does know: they’re still standing in the doorway, she’s still holding Trini’s hand, and she’s losing feeling in her fingers.

She pulls at their joined hands, for a moment, it seems like Trini won’t let go, but the moment quickly passes and she’s left holding nothing but air.

 

-

 

They don’t talk about it. While they _don’t_ window shop and _don’t_ go to Cinnabon, and _don’t, don’t, don’t…_

It makes no sense that they don’t talk about it, but every time Kim opens her mouth to say anything, anything at all, she loses...what? The nerve? The words?

Her freaking mind?

And then there’s Trini. She’s gone “Always the New Girl” on Kim, stubbornly quiet and aggressively fading into the background. Daring anyone to acknowledge her existence, scoffing when they don’t.

She half-expects Trini to run the second they leave the mall, but as Kim drove them there, Trini’s options are either: walk the 17.2miles back to her side of town or get in the car.

Kim hates that she can see Trini seriously contemplating it, so she says, “We should train.”

It’s not quite acknowledging their current “relationship status” but it’s tangentially inclining towards it. Being Rangers is what brought them together, after all. Kim doesn’t know what together means now that in the eyes of Ty -  by that being in the eyes of Angel Grove’s Most Popular, so soon, if not, already, in the eyes of the entire high school - _together_ means dating and _girlfriends._

But this together can’t be changed, not by whatever comes next - a monster out for the Zeo Crystal or Monday morning.

Without looking at her, Trini says, “Yeah, let’s.”

Kim’s in drive, on the way out of the parking lot when she reaches for the radio, the silence too much to handle. Trini’s hand shoots out, pushing hers away.

Kim reacts, but there’s only so much of a fight that she can put up without driving them off the road, so Trini hooks up her Spotify and Kim’s treated to rock, leaning towards the heavy metal side.

Treated maybe being the right word because actually…

“I like this song.”

“Yeah, it's not heavy metal,” Trini says. She’s smiling, Kim knows it without having to look over because she’s smiling, too.

“Ha-ha,” she intones, less mocking of Trini than it is of the wave of relief that they’re joking and everything isn’t all ruined.

_... so I keep picking petals/I'm afraid you don't love me anymore/cuz a kid on the gram in a Black Dahlia tank/says it ain't heavy metal…_

They don’t talk about it. Still. The drive to the safe distance, only sort of suspicious, dirt turn-off the road is just _not_ heavy metal and _actual_ heavy metal. Save for securing Trini’s pack, their contact is as far from earlier as it can be.

They jump down separately. Kim after Trini, though Trini glances back before she goes - a question almost.

_Are we doing this together?_

She almost races to head down with her but Trini’s disappeared beyond her sight before she’s falling herself, eyes closed to the force and chill of the wind.

They swim through, land soaked on the cave ground, and head to the pit together. Trini morphs as soon as the first creature appears, and Kim follows her lead.

They still don’t talk about it.

But even as her focus is tugged sharply away by trying to overcome these new enemies – Zordon’s taken Rita’s words to heart, or matrixed holographic head, and has Alpha-5 replicating enemies his ranger team faced before.

These are called “Vivix.”

Fairly easy one on one but there’s never just one or even one million it seems.

Her focus is fractured unevenly between them but she feels Trini - yellow energy pulsing in chaotic waves, unable to decide whether to crash or recede. Her own energy is erratic, hard to control.

Impossible to control.

Kim’s thrown out of morph, with her back to Trini’s. She has but a second to note that their armor failed at the same time. They’re facing a horrifying amount of green haired, eyeless aliens, and even as they come at them one ass-kicking and cut here, bruise there aside, they never part for long, somehow always pulled back to each other.

Together.

When all’s done, with nothing said, Alpha-5 glides into the pit.

“Excellent work, ladies. If only the boys shared your work ethic.” Alpha-5 pauses. “Well, Master Billy does. In his way. We’re building a tracking system, with his calculations of the crystal location.”

Completely disinterested, Trini picks up her things and says, “Later, Alpha-5.”

Kim rushes to keep up with Trini. She waves a distracted farewell at the AI and loops after her. On the surface, dripping wet on the ridge, Trini finally turns to her, furious with yellow energy, blazing anew.

“I thought you were my friend. How could you say that? _Why_ did you say that?”

“It just happened! I wasn’t thinking – I just! I’m sorry.”

She looks down at her hands. They’re shaking. She closes her fingers around air, and stuffs her fists into her pockets.

“I’m sorry.”

“Look -”

Kim snaps to attention, searching for the source of Trini’s sudden outburst, but it’s nothing. They’re still alone. Only now, Trini’s gaze is less lethal, the tight jaw and pout of promised deadly and painful retribution gone to surprise – as if she didn’t expect Kim _to_ look.

It’s almost funny because before all this? Kim spent too much time trying not to look at herself to notice anyone else. She’d guessed her way through what she knew of Trini as it was related to her – she has six classes, but only four with a teacher corny enough to force a “new kid” introduction and only two where that wouldn’t make Trini a target for bored high schoolers, but she’d been stupidly wrong and embarrassed to the point that at first she made sure to look for Trini when she walked into Bio. After that, it was looking for her during the bell transitions. At lunch. In the auditorium during attendance mandatory school assemblies. Zoning out during calculus, she’d looked. Knowing that Trini didn’t even take calculus and she had English at that time anyway, but still she looked.

Hadn’t stopped looking since she realized she could. Had only faltered once when Zack asked her where Trini was and she didn’t know, but her head whispered ‘ _You should_.’

“Look, Davis will let us off the hook for detention if we say it’s because of ‘band practice’” Trini air-quotes this, sarcasm more for their detention moderator’s quick willingness to believe that the five of them, who hadn’t taken a music class since the failed attempt at mass teaching sixth graders how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the Recorder, decided to seriously start a band, “But what happens the next time some monster decides to attack during the middle of an actual school day? Us disappearing together…well, a hook up is a much better cover than band practice.”

Unexpected doesn’t begin to cover Trini’s reaction but – Kim finds herself smiling, her happiness at Trini not hating her mixing with admiration at her quick thinking, twisting her heart and coloring red into her cheeks with the thought _my girlfriend is so smart._

Trini shakes her head, her smile small, her words, too, “You’re lucky it was me Ty assumed you were dating. Imagine if he ran into you and Zack at the mall.”

Kim doesn’t want to.

“Or Billy.”

“Not horrifying, but no way we could pull it off.”

“Or Jason.”

Kim considers that one. Ty had gone to assuming her and Jason were friends but what if he’d been there with her? Honestly, it would’ve been a more reasonable assumption than her and Trini – up until them becoming Power Rangers, they lived worlds apart. Outcast former cheerleader, disgraced former quarterback: she and Jason made sense.

But the thought of them being together?

“I might’ve taken out another tooth, you know, fight or flight panic response.”

Trini takes a step towards her, but shifts her gaze to look at a car driving along the mountain road, “I know.” The car passes but Trini continues staring down. “I’d panic too, if it were me people thought Jason was dating. Jason Scott dating…” She works her face over in confusion. Mockingly, she hums, “Didi?” She rolls her eyes at the imaginary gossipers, and then pales. Sort of. Her eyes widen, her bottom lip finding its way between her teeth. “My parents would lose their minds.”

Kim reaches out – not thinking, not really, but Trini looks terrified, and as bad as she is about facing her problems head on, she asks, “If your parents found out you were dating him?”

“Anyone.”

She glances at Kim and then quickly looks away again. Guilt has Kim pulling away – how does she always manage to screw up everything she touches? One awful text and the life that she knew? Gone. And now one careless, unthinking reply, and this life that she’s been building from the ground up?

“They won’t.” Kim promises, pleads to the whole of space and time. She saved the world, alright? Could said world give her just this? This one thing. Maybe Kim doesn’t deserve this, but Trini does. Could the world give her this? “We’ll make sure.”

Trini snorts, “Maybe.” She looks at Kim again, her expression shadowed. “Maybe. The whole rebuilding Angel Grove thing has been her new focus. She thinks the Power Rangers should be helping.”

“Really?”

“I could explain to her that bigger does not mean better at laying bricks, but…” She shrugs. “Better that than another drug test.”

“Better that than this?”

Trini looks aside again.  

“Yeah, better.”

Without the panic of not knowing what to do, between them now is nothing but silence. Awkward silence. They’ve been quiet in each other’s company plenty of times now, but it’s different now that they’ve talked about it.

Probably because it feels like she didn’t say anything at all.

Trying to ease the tension, Kim says, “So, we’re good?”

Trini looks at her, and then nudges at her with her elbow.

“Yeah, good talk.”

It’s been their goodbye for a while now, but it hasn’t felt this empty since Kim threw them off the mountain. Flinging them into the unknown without a thought to anyone, not even herself.

“Yeah. Good talk,” she whispers – to herself.

Trini’s already gone.

-

Trini isn’t crazy. Probably not crazy. Or maybe only a little crazy on the day to day, whenever the occasion (Zack) warrants it.

She’s isn’t but this - this is crazy.

Is this fake dating? Is that what they’re doing? Maybe she’d be more certain if she had said something more than – what did she even say? Nothing for a good hour or so while her brain did its best to not process the whiplash that was their run-in with Kim’s ex.

Having her head knocked around by aliens helped.

But then the adrenaline of training faded, and of course what stayed with her was the feeling of Kim’s back against hers, the heat and dampness, the solid line of her body, tight muscles and obscenely smooth skin. All she could think about was how their backs together almost felt like holding Kim’s hand. Being that close and closer, but Kim at her back felt safe. Kim holding her hand felt _terrifyingly_ safe because every word out of Ty’s mouth, every spike in Kim’s energy, every little motion that made her hold on tight, tighter, sounded like _don't let me go_. Like it was fine as long as they held onto each other.

What did she say to all that?

_I’m angry, I’m confused and freaking out…lets really be girlfriends. That’ll solve this._

Oh, and she’d topped it off with a less than subtle show of low self-esteem and practically begged Kim to say that Trini is the only ranger she’d be willing to fake date.

Which is what they’re doing?

Fake dating?

She texts Zack because if she’s going to be crazy today, she might as well not be alone. Besides he’s actually the easiest to break this turn of events to because when she sends “I'm fake dating Kim.”

He replies, “Kind of a bright color combo, but I dig it,” and follows up with, “I'm calling you, pick up.”

The story comes out in a rush. Zack is an excellent listener when the sun sinks behind the mountain. Trini knows – the conversations in her head are always louder at night, too. Drowning those out with someone else’s words makes the nights easier. Their team of “five dumb teens against the galaxy” have more in common than any group of teens thrown together in a coming of age movie, but out of everyone, Zack hums at her wavelength. Both of them were already practicing outcasts. At night, with Zack always running from his home in fear of conversations too heavy, too final, and with Trini fleeing from conversations that could make her heavy heart heavier, silence her once and for all.

“You sure this isn’t just a really weird dream you had?”

She barely threatens him before he says, “Don’t worry about it. I've got your back.”

She believes it. She believes him. But she doesn’t know what having her back means when she doesn’t know what she’s going to do.

_Are they fake dating? Is that what they’re doing?_

_More importantly_ – suddenly, she remembers the sharp press of Kim’s ring between their intertwined fingers. It didn’t leave a mark, or maybe it did, and Trini’s only looking, now, after it’s faded –

_More importantly, are they gonna hold hands?_

-

They don’t hold hands. They don’t even see each other until Trini, Billy, and Jason’s lunch, Zack and Kim’s free period, where they don’t talk about it, just fight over cake until Trini wins the final bite (as expected.)

_Are they fake dating_?

That’s a resounding “no” – well, up until Trini’s win is overshadowed by the feeling of being watched.

“Whose phone should I break first?”

Because it can’t just be people watching. Not in a small town like Angel Grove. Drama doesn’t come often and they need something to keep up their social media presence.

Zack props up on his elbow and surveys the cafeteria.

“I count six phones pointed in our direction, but the girl two tables west is looking too triumphant. I don’t know if it’ll be fast enough to stop her from uploading it somewhere, it’s probably already in her cloud, but I will throw this milk carton at her if you insist.”

_Insist?_ She didn’t even suggest. Though…it isn’t the worst idea.

“God, what the hell is wrong with people?” she asks just as Kim says, “Zack, your aim is not that good.”

She looks at Kim, and Kim’s looking at Jason: quarterback with excellent aim and absolutely no competition.

(He isn’t competition.)

Zack huffs, clearly offended by Kim’s accurate estimation of his throwing skills, and shoots back, “Wanna see me try?”

Before the words are fully out his mouth, Jason snags the milk from Zack’s tray and chugs it.

Zack shrugs. Defeated in that, he turns to Trini’s question and answers, “What’s wrong is that you two just spent ten minutes fighting over a cupcake. I just spent ten minutes super impressed by your mastery of spork warfare. Jason just spent ten minutes taking notes -”

“What?”

At his name, Jason jerks so fast that the last of the chocolate milk ends up all over his hand and dripping from his shirt sleeve. Kim laughs, but passes him a napkin without comment.

Zack offers one up. “If the fate of the world ever comes down to our ability to get the last bite, we all need to be prepared.” He turns back to Trini, completely ignoring Jason’s grumbled protest. “And Billy just spent the last ten minutes –”

He stops.

“Where is Billy?”

They all turn to look for him and find him just stepping off the lunch line balancing four Styrofoam bowls in his hands. He sidesteps a stuck out foot on his way back to their table but he doesn’t even notice – the owner wilts away at Jason’s glare, and then makes the mistake of looking back and catching Zack’s ‘I’ve got my eyes on you’ gesture. No one wants to end up the next slapped bully, and there’s a rumor going around that Zack’s many absences are because of his double life as a serial killer.

It’s too ridiculous to bother denying, and besides revealing just how many teachers are as bored as their students, it’s pretty much par for the course in outcast rumors.

Billy makes it to them with the bowls wobbling in his arms, of which Jason and Zack are quick to help him unload.

“I brought more cake.” He smiles brightly. “So you and Kim don’t have to fight anymore.”

“They weren’t fighting, but I won’t say no to more cake.”

Zack slides Trini, Kim, and Jason one each, taking the last one for himself and stuffing his face a second later.

Billy raises his hand, frowning at Zack. “That one was for me.”

Zack’s expression is apologetic but the sincerity is put into serious question by his puffed out cheeks and how he almost chokes trying to swallow the cake down.

“Gross.”

“Yeah, sorry, Billy,” Zack says.

It’d be only partially right to say that she recognizes the expression that crosses Zack’s face as him being up to no good because Zack being up to something good looks the same way, but his “up to no good” this time is calculated.

He takes another bite, and mouth stuffed, says, “Jason, you don’t mind sharing, though?”

None of them miss how he doesn’t ask if Kim or Trini mind sharing. Not even Billy.

“Kim and Trini already shared one,” he points out.

But Jason’s already pilfered the spork Zack didn’t use and offers it up to Billy with a “Please help me eat this. I already had ice cream cake for breakfast.” To their semi-questioning looks, he replies, “It’s my sister’s birthday, and the birthday girl decides what we eat and when. Dinner’s looking like Krispy Kreme and chicken nuggets.”

“Good luck,” Trini says with a deep and painful understanding. The twins’ birthday is probably her favourite day of the year, but it comes at great cost to her ability to look at dessert for the next three months.

“So Jason, you taking me home for dinner?”

Zack smirks, and Jason answers it with a laugh and a shake of his head. “Not on your life.”

“I’d be on my best behavior!”

Trini slaps Zack’s arm, earning an ‘ow.’ “You have no best behavior.”

Before he can argue that, Jason says, “Birthday girl also decides who’s invited to her birthday dinner, anyway. Which speaking of, Billy how does Krispy Kreme and chicken nuggets sound?”

Billy looks up from cutting the cake – perfect halves for him and Jason. Trini meets Kim’s eyes, smothering a smile.

So maybe they’re fake dating without discussing that fact – and maybe that’s either pathetic or self and relationship-preserving on Trini’s part, but even if they’re not discussing their _not_ -romance, they can follow Jason and Billy’s maybe, eventual one without making uncomfortable comparisons to their own.

(Jason isn’t competition. He doesn’t want to be.)

“Together?” Billy asks.

“Not exactly,” Jason says.

“If they’re not fried in the same oil, they probably will taste fine in the same meal, but if they are, I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t taste good, Jason. Not that I can say for sure as I’ve never had chicken fried donuts or donut? Donut fried chicken, but that doesn’t sound good, especially if the chicken nuggets are seasoned, Jason.”

Zack groans, face-planting on the table. With his voice mostly muffled, they can still understand his “Jason’s asking you to dinner, Billy.”

(With his head still down, Trini can see the ‘up to no good’ look in his eyes, aimed directly at her.)

“My sister is,” Jason clarifies.

Trini has to hand it to him. He _almost_ sounds believable. Jason’s face gives him away though, every time. That’s the problem with being _so_ pale. You can never hide a blush.

Kim comes through for him with a smile that makes Trini have to look anywhere but at her. Forget Jason and Billy not making her think of her and Kim. _When Kim smiles,_ she makes not thinking about them impossible. Before, exactly seconds before running into Ty Fleming, when Kim smiled, that secret, overwhelming happiness she felt at seeing _Kimberly Hart_ smile, well that feeling she could hide; but now, when Kim smiles, it’s Trini’s _girlfriend_ smiling and that secret, overwhelming happiness?

Not so secret, and unfortunately, still overwhelming.

Especially when there are people taking pictures. But it’s Zack this time, snapping a picture _with_ flash, like an asshole so the time adjusting her eyes to the light again is enough for him to slide across the bench into Jason and out of reach of her short arms. She reads the “short stuff” on his lips and tucks the annoyance aside for later – Zack can meet her in the pit.

“Smile,” he says, giving Jason a second longer warning time than Trini. A second wasted because Jason gives Zack the perfect shot, staring directly into the flash.

“Zack, no!”

Kim raises her hands in front of her face as he targets her, but she’s laughing too hard, and when she presses a hand to her stomach to hold in her laughter, he takes the shot and catches Kim – catches Trini, too. Because Kim is smiling directly at Trini, not even realizing it because the flash knocked the sight out of her eyes too, so she’s blind to what every camera still pointed in their direction now knows.

It’s a picture perfect proof for a snap or a tweet: _Angel Grove meet “Didi,” Kimberly Hart’s new girlfriend._

Trini is pulled from “Kim’s smile makes me feel alive” to life on the physical realm by Billy when he asks, “Jason, should I bring your sister a present?”

Jason blinks rapidly – definitely not because of the flash and says, “You’re coming?”

“I want to try these Krispy Kreme chicken nuggets,” Billy says.

“It’s not -” Jason shakes his head, smiling, and says, “No, you don’t have to bring her a present.”

Billy nods decisively, quickly followed by an excited smile. Hands coming together, he says, “I know what to bring her. I have to go home and finish, but it should be done by dinner time. Your dinner time, at seven right?”

Jason doesn’t argue about the present or question it. He just smiles and lets it be.

Team leader really only means a lot as Rangers, and is just something to rib him about when they’re not in life-threatening, world-ending danger – but Trini can admit that she looks to him, sometimes, like now. If he can do it, just let things be, then it can be okay if she and Kim don’t talk about it. Don’t argue. Don’t question it. Let Angel Grove think what they want.

Anything more than that, though?

_Well, it wasn’t the worst idea_.

Trini slides her unopened milk across the table so that Zack looks up, grinning.

“Okay, homeboy, show me what you’ve got.”

-

The first “officially fake girlfriends” kissy face emoji she gets is during calculus. She’d just started to zone out and do the quick “I’m not looking for Trini because she isn’t here” glance towards the back of the room when her phone starts to flash with a new message.

**you put way too much crap in my locker, get it out or it gets thrown out**

Kim _had_ dumped half her English reading assignments in there. The novellas were in various states of decomposition, having been in circulation probably since her parents were in high school. If it was her locker, she’d want them out, too.

But when Trini said she didn’t need a locker and ripped the door right off its hinges (and broken a tray of old chem beakers, they found out later, so she’d also done the world a great service), she’d signed up for this and even a threat, accompanied by a kiss won’t make Kim forget that.

Even if this is the first time Trini’s used that emoji with her.

Kim’s always the one sending them. Trini’s go-to is the tired emoji – tired of this class, this homework, this conversation with her parents and Zack hitting her up at all hours of the night. She kind of suspected that Trini lived in her recently used emojis and never bothered to scroll further – too tired to find a new way to categorize her emotion.

But there it is, proof that Trini’s keyboard _is_ capable of sending more than that one expression. There it is, for reasons Kim can only guess at, the best one being it’s just a casual reminder that ‘we’re fake dating, let’s not forget to act like it.’

**you can buy mr. levy new books or you can live with these old ones in there for a week, your choice**

She signs the text with two kissy faces.

-

Trini’s ability to flirt through texts is very rusty, considering she’s never had or let herself need one to begin with. She thinks maybe following Kim’s example is probably the wrong way to go since that’d be operating under the assumption that Kim’s been flirting with her through text.

But it isn’t like she has anyone else to go to. Of the six people she texts, two of them are her parents, three of them are boys, who – including Jason, which is crazy by all standards, real and made up on the big screen – have as much practice as her. So that discounts them on two fronts. The only person left is Kim.

Besides, that, as different as she is from the rest of her family, the one thing they share is being so, so prideful. It sucks that it’s also a big part of why the rift between them is so wide.

As Trini has so much pride, even with all that she’s lost this week, she’s retained enough to not google “how to flirt through text.”

Plus, even if, at some point, her fingers had hovered over the keys with that search at their tips, there’s the very important reason why she shouldn’t and has no reason to:

They’re not actually dating.

Fake dating only covers texting when you’re in the NSA or the person you’re faking it for is reading your texts. Neither of which applies to them.

But since she’s used it once already…

**well there goes my run-in with Glinda fund**

**you can leave the receipt in my locker, there’s plenty of space now so it won’t get lost**

Trini’s heart pounds heavy metal against her rib cage – Kim sent _two_ kissy faces. _Two._ Before she can get deep into trying to figure out the meaning of that, Kim replies. Relief floods her, apparently she’s found her flirting-footing on the first try. She barely resists telling her empty room “how the turns have tabled,” because Kim’s replied “you suck” is followed by Trini’s signature emoji. _Tired_.

Though, her heart is still pounding too fast at that one emoji, and even as she smiles at the screen, she feels fear wind its way within the exhilaration: what if she never gets tired of this? Of flirting with her fake girlfriend?

She starts another text, doesn’t press send. When she looks at her phone later, it’s still there, a kissy face waiting to be sent.

Trini deletes it instead.

 

-

 

Zack gets pinned against the wall but it isn’t long before Trini reaches his side. She tears the monster off him, sends it back into wherever Alpha-5 grows them from with four solid hits, but when it disappears, there’s rebound so she’s the worst savior in the world, probably. Rescued Zack only to be the one to knock him back down.

Still, she acts like this is _exactly_ what she meant to do.

“Don’t I always have your back?”

“No, the ground has it, Crazy Girl. You have 130 pounds -” Elbow to the stomach. “120 pounds?” Knee in the thigh. “You’re sitting on me.”

Trini smiles and stands up. She brushes the kicked up dirt off her clothes before offering Zack a hand. He takes it and allows her to pull him up with a “Thanks.”

When he’s fully standing beside her, she says, “No worries, Zack. Like I said, I’ve got your back.”

He stretches out, wincing when he twists his neck. Trini knows the feeling. The rebound hit her square in the shoulder and it stings.

“How about we dial it back on the exploding monsters for the rest of today?”

Trini agrees, but she has no desire to go home yet. Now that she’s gotten used to physically working out her problems in the pit, it’s hard to return to practicing moves on top of rock ledges.

Plus, Alpha-5 has her headphones.

“We turning friendly fire on?”

“Sounds good to me,” is barely out her mouth before Kim runs over to her, grabs her, and asks, “Spar with me?” in that way where it isn’t a question or a suggestion because she already knows the answer.

It’s the Pretty Girl effect, to expect people will always say yes, and yeah, Trini’s a little offended to be caught up in it. Does she really give off the impression that she’s someone who jumps to do whatever a pretty girl says?

She’s more offended because, yes, she is, following Kim to an empty spot in the pit. Still, it isn’t because she’s pretty and smiling or that her chest is heaving with every breath is distracting and she’s Kimberly Hart. It’s because they’re tied 3 for 3 in hand to hand and Trini wants today’s bragging rights.

It’s about the challenge, not about the partner.

She mirrors Kim, takes her stance, and waits for her partner to make a move.

She really doesn’t expect Kim to look her dead in the eye, grin and then turn tail and run the opposite direction. She has no idea what Kim is doing, but she chases after her anyway. She quickly closes in but skids to a halt when she realizes Kim is running straight for the wall –

Running up the wall, and flipping over Trini’s head to come up behind her.

Her breath rushes over Trini’s neck as she leans in close, wrapping her arms around Trini’s waist from behind. “That’s my win,” Kim says. She tightens her grip on Trini’s waist and though her brain short-circuited when Kim’s lips brushed her ear, her body rallies in its stead, every muscle offended that Kim would use _that_ move on her.

As Kim starts to lift her, Trini throws all her weight forward, using Kim’s own motion to fling her in the opposite direction, up and over Trini’s head. Kim screams as she flies the short distance and lands on her ass with a pitiful yelp.

“That’s _my_ win.”

She starts forward to where Kim is still sitting on the ground. For a moment, she thinks that Kim’s actually hurt until she takes Trini’s outstretched hand and says, “Round 2.”

Trini ends up on her ass after that, so they stop counting rounds and go with the usual “loser is the first one to wave the white flag.” At some point far later, it becomes clear that her body won’t cooperate much longer, so Trini throws all that she has into her next moves.

And as it happens sometimes…

They’re going constant contact, win at all costs because when you start out high stakes, it’s a little hard not to fight like the world will end in a week if you don’t make your friend eat dirt. 

So, it happens sometimes…

Only this is the first time it’s happened since Trini decided to let things be on the fake girlfriend front. It’s also the first time she hasn’t either compartmentalized it or not even noticed it.

So, it’s basically the first time she’s grabbed Kim’s ass.

When her first thought is – _oh okay, she really is perfect_ – and not “she’s definitely down for the count,” even if it is an accidental, passing touch it’s called groping. That’s just how it is, no matter the intent. Which wasn’t to confirm what she’d casually wondered the first time Kim walked into Bio in a pair of tight jeans, to be clear.

She just wanted to win, and she really wants Kim to not notice every thought that’s just run through her head.

“I give,” Kim says from the ground where Trini dropped her like a ton of well-shaped bricks.

“Oh, thank god,” Trini says.

She didn’t notice, though Trini’s outburst has her looking up uncertainly. Trini rushes to distract her, says, “For a second there, I thought I was going to lose.”

“You were…until you decided to turn into a cannonball on me,” Kim says, half-petulantly and half-impressed. Leaning more towards the impressed, it seems because she smiles and sticks out her hand. “You gonna use some of that superhero strength to help me up or what?”

“Seems I’m all out,” Trini says. She feigns stepping away and Kim whines her name. She concedes with an “Alright, alright.”

She leans down and grabs Kim’s hand – Well, her reprieve didn’t last long at all.

Her gaze leaves Kim’s face, not deliberately, but it does, and she finds herself eye to eye with Kim’s cleavage as she rises. Trini jerks back just before she plants her face directly in Kim’s barely covered chest. She near loses her own footing, trying to run away from feeling Kim up for the second time in the span of five minutes, but Kim pulls her forward. They don’t quite slam into each other, but they’re close enough for Trini’s higher brain to flee the scene of what is probably going to be a third-strike crime. If she tilts her head up, just slightly –

Kim’s mouth is just waiting to be kissed.

“Did you win?”

Zack’s voice brings her back, but not away. They pull apart into safe distances, but they’re still holding hands, and Trini realizes with painful clarity that she can’t be the first one to pull away. It would be losing.

Losing the warmth of Kim’s touch.

“She did,” Kim says, detaching herself from Trini’s grip.

Trini tucks her hands into her back pockets where they can’t cause more damage, and tries to recover her sanity.

It helps, or doesn’t help, or only sort of helps that Billy announces, “It’s 7:30,” and Kim freaks out, rushing to get herself together.

“I’m so late, my parents are going to kill me.”

“Dinner party?”

“Worse. Facetime with my grandmother.”

“Ooh, good luck.”

Kim looks back once, and like nothing happened – Trini didn’t feel her up, nearly feel her up, or seriously think about kissing her – she says, “I’ll text you later,” before sprinting towards the surface.

Trini watches her go, realizing that she’s staring at her ass, but being unable to stop until she’s saved by the turn in the cave path that hides Kim from her view.

She closes her eyes and hopes that the image isn’t burned on the back of her eyelids the same way she still feels Kim’s hand in hers.

“I’m just gonna pack up and go directly to hell now,” she mutters.

She doesn’t realize that anyone’s close enough to hear her, or maybe she’s louder than she thought, because, from behind her, Jason says, “You need a ride?”

Trini feels flares go off in her face, and stutters into silence before she thinks of an appropriate reply. She racks her brain for something other than what will prove that every teen-based media is right: that all they think about is sex when they’re not turning into werewolves, hunting down serial killers, or saving the world.

“Nah, I think I’ll just call an Uber.”

Jason frowns. “We only have cabs and -” He offers himself with widened arms, “Parolees that technically aren’t allowed to drive.”

“I’ll just take my chances walking,” she says.

He shrugs, but doesn’t move on, which is a very bad sign. He has that look on his face that says “just because I’m a maturing young adult doesn’t mean I have to like it.” It’s the look that says he wants to offer advice, and Trini’s problems are way out of his league and realm of knowledge. She’s better off asking Google.

“You know,” he starts and she cuts him off – “Yeah, I know. I can talk to you if I need to.”

He laughs, shaking his head, and says, “I’m not trying to give the team leader talk this time, I swear. I just wanted to say that you two work really well. Together.”

Oh wow, she really doesn’t want to hear this.

“Jason.”

“And if you ever have any advice you want to offer me? That’d be great.”

For a beat, she doesn’t react. When she does, Trini bursts out laughing – the ridiculousness of it all! People think they’re dating so they _are_ “dating” but because they’re “dating” now Trini can’t seem to function like a gay soft-crushing on her friend anymore and has turned into second-guessing every single one of their interactions to the point that she’s blowing accidental touches out of proportion and freaking out, and all the while, apparently, looking the exact opposite…

She swipes at her eyes and takes deep breaths, to calm herself, and when she opens her eyes, Jason is standing there looking half-concerned and mildly embarrassed, his face a very blotchy shade of red.

“Thanks, Jason.”

Bewildered, he says, “Happy to help?”

Trini wishes she could return the favor, but all she can do is tap his elbow in acknowledgment before Billy runs over and asks, “Trini, do you need a ride home?”

“You driving?”

“No. I don’t drive. Jason is, though.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Trini smiles, looking between Billy’s earnest face and Jason’s suddenly not looking at either of them face. “I think I’ll walk.”

She can feel Jason’s eyes on her as she turns to gather her own things, and she smiles to herself, _happy to help_.

 

Halfway through a very boring WW1 discussion, Kim’s surprised by a sudden text. Trini.

**science hall bathroom now.**

_We’re not ready_ is her first frantic thought, but after she’s grabbed her bag and run out the room with only a, “Family emergency,” she slows her steps, calms down. If it was a monster after the Zeo Crystal, it wouldn’t just be Trini texting her. Plus, news of a strange squirrel puts the whole of Angel Grove on alert now. An alien threat would have everyone in chaos.

She slows again, feels a new spike of fear racing through her. It could be mundane. Like Trini needs a tampon or got herself stuck in a stall without toilet paper.

Or – okay, it definitely isn’t mundane. Since Zack destroyed that girl’s phone with a carton of chocolate milk (then disappeared before anyone even whispered “detention”) they haven’t had any problems with spying or gossiping, though Kim’s mostly sworn off social media so she could be wrong.

There have been other problems though.

Namely, her realization that her inability to talk about their relationship isn’t because she doesn’t know what to say. It’s because what she wants to say she can’t say. Maybe before Ty assumed they were dating and Kim had confirmed it, she could’ve told Trini that she may be pretty much in love with her.

But now?

(Kim was the reason they couldn’t morph. Now she’s standing between her and what could be the best thing ever.)

She isn’t an awful person. She believes that now, but not because Jason said it – not even because he well and truly meant it. She believes because Trini smiles at her even when Kim’s not looking. Zack had snapped not only the worst profile pics ever, but one of her favourite photos ever. She’d frame it like the one she has of them all, only, it would be creepy and wrong; Trini’s not her girlfriend, even when she looks at Kim like she wants to be.

Kim wants her to want to be but how could Trini ever believe Kim’s feelings now? Kim perfected being a cruel bitch. Amanda and Harper’s bullying? Kim had taught them that. It wouldn’t be that far of a jump to think that Kim would only break her heart. They were her best friends since childhood, and she hadn’t thought anything of hurting them.

If she were in Trini’s place, she’d hate Kim for even suggesting that they could be something more. Trini might trust Kim with her life, but it’d be a miracle for her to trust Kim with her heart.

(She so cannot talk about this.)

She steps into the bathroom with an unintentionally shrill, “Trini?”

“I’m here,” she calls from behind a closed stall door. She slips a piece of paper between the slants in the door and says, “Kim, this was in our locker. It’s the third one.”

“Third one?”

Kim opens the folded piece of paper, expecting something awful and finds something worse. It’s a letter, and not just some kind of psychotic hate mail, but the kind of confession that she has to stop reading when the person writes, “… _if Kimberly Hart can date a girl, then maybe, I don’t have to be so scared –_

“Wow.”

She closes the letter back up, wishing that she’d never read it, any of it. She blinks away the sudden sharp press of tears. They aren’t scared because of her – it’s the most terrifying thing Kim’s ever read.

“I know. Kim should we really be doing this?” Trini adds after a pause. “Like this?”

“Trini, I – I don’t know.”

“Do you want to keep doing this? Maybe we should -”

Trini stops talking.

“Should what?”

She quiets too, hearing the footsteps approaching. The person goes by without stopping and only when it’s quiet again does Kim breathe out.

“Trini?”

“Forget I said anything, it won’t change this anyway.”

Trini opens the bathroom door and steps out in significantly less clothes than she walked in with. This morning, she’d been bundled in the usual yellow hoodie and jeans, but its _hot_ today. Kim knows this is only because Trini can’t get away with cutting anymore PE classes, that even though she’s a sweatpants, t-shirt fitness combo, she’s opted for a pair of shorts.

It’s those Soffe gym shorts, too, the ones with the elastic waist that you have to fold up so they don’t hang awkwardly or look weird. They leave a significant amount to the imagination – Kim’s imagination which can and is running wild with the sight of Trini’s superhero toned thighs. Right now, she can’t think, can only imagine, pressing her hands to Trini’s waist, her fingers at the waistband and dipping underneath –

“Dude, why didn’t you ice that?”

Kim gapes, this time, at Trini’s face. “What?”

Trini approaches, hand gently curling around Kim’s elbow. She lifts and studies the full, mottled purple of the bruise Kim earned during their last heavy training session.

“I did. It looks worse than it feels.”

Actually.

It feels pretty bad because Trini’s head is tilted downwards so Kim can see the full fans of her eyelashes, and at this angle, Trini’s pout is somehow even more kissable.

Probably because, at this angle, Trini can’t see how badly Kim wants to kiss it. Thank god for the privileges of height – natural and artificial. In these boots, she’s almost another two inches taller than Trini.

Trini looks up like she heard the thought, but thankfully the glare reads as only having heard the second half. Trini steps back and crosses her arms over her chest.

“I didn’t _only_ notice it because it’s at my eye level.”

“I know,” Kim says.

_At my eye level_.

The bruise on Kim’s arm is at basically the same level as Kim’s boobs, meaning maybe Trini hasn’t been staring at her chest this whole time and has just been looking straight-ahead at her natural eye level.

That only makes this conversation worse. From nearly fake-breaking up to Kim’s one track mind and back around to “maybe you’re tricking yourself into thinking that picture is proof of Trini having feelings for you, and you’re an even bigger asshole for angsting over hurting someone who doesn’t even care.”

A dejected laugh bubbles out of her, and has Trini groaning and turning away.

“I’ve got some arnica cream if you want,” Trini offers with a sigh.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea -”

A good idea, and a bad one. Maybe Trini isn’t attracted to her. Maybe this whole thing is in Kim’s head – but she could test it, just this little bit, though it would be taking advantage.

_Guilt later_ , she decides, and says, “Can you help me rub it in?” Trini eyes her with not-suspicion, not-confusion, but not exactly full faith in Kim’s request either so she adds, “I could do it myself but it’s such an awkward angle that I’d probably end up making it hurt worse.”

Trini nods and warns, “Just don’t elbow me in the face.”

It isn’t at all what Kim is aiming for.

Trini squeezes so much into her palm that it has Kim a little concerned. Her bruise is definitely not that big. When Trini touches the swollen skin, Kim winces in surprise at the actual pain and grudgingly concedes to Trini’s non-verbalized “I told you so.”

She rubs gently, massaging the bruise until it feels tender but not awful. Kim expects her to pull away, but Trini reaches upwards to cup Kim’s cheek. Behind her ear, pain radiates up towards her hairline and Kim gasps.

“I’ll get this one, too,” Trini says, smoothing the rest of the arnica into that bruise until it feels better and Kim has almost completely lost her chill. She feels overly warm, and it isn’t because of Trini’s closeness. It’s the intimacy that’s so overwhelming. She didn’t even realize she’d had a bruise there, but Trini had. She’d taken Kim’s invitation for her to look at her boobs and turned it into something sweet and caring.

And brought Kim right back to the angsting: _you really pulled her into your mess. Nice one, Kim._

“Thank you,” Kim says as Trini steps back and turns to wash her hands at the sink. She looks at herself in the mirror, turning slightly to look at the bruise behind her ear. It’s so small and in such an innocuous spot that it’s no wonder she didn’t notice it.

But Trini had.

Trini meets her eyes through the mirror, and Kim tries for a smile. It ends up shaky and weird, but then everything always looks worse in the mirror. Trini smiles back.

“I have to go to gym. You gonna go back to class?”

Kim shakes her head. “I said it was a family emergency so I think I might just head home, get yelled at a bit, take a nap and then maybe go for a swim.”

“That sounds so much better than PE,” Trini groans.

Kim laughs at that and says, “Try not to look too physically active. They might try to recruit you for a team and then you’ll never escape it.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Trini turns, starts away, and then stops to look back slightly, “Kim, really, forget I said anything alright. We’re good.” She takes a breath, smiles. “Good talk?”

Kim can’t forget. She can only pretend – to be better, to not be manipulative, to consider the feelings of others and not treat people’s lives like they’re her game.

She struggles, but she does manage to return the smile.

“Good talk,” she says and holds the smile until Trini turns away. 

 

-

 

“Kimberly, don’t forget about the dinner party,” her mom called out not once, but twice as Kim left the house, and she’d already been in her car the second time so she shut down the “How could I? You have caterers in our living room and the music’s been on since ten?” because it just didn’t pack the same punch being shouted out a car window.

It isn’t how she wants to start her day anyway.

She’s in a decent mood when she pulls up at Billy’s house at almost noon on the dot. Two minutes to noon, actually.

“You’re two minutes early,” Billy says. He turns to wave at his mom and Kim does the same before he continues, “I told Mr. Martin that we would be there at 12:25. He said whatever time was fine, but I like 12:25.”

Kim looks to him before she pulls off, “Ready?” She knows that in his cars, the driver has to turn the shell before pulling off, but she doesn’t have that in hers.

Billy nods, “Yes. I like 12:25. Whenever my dad and I would go to his shop, when he couldn’t salvage the parts he needed though we usually could, it would be at 12:25. Right before Mr. Martin locked the doors for the lunch hour. He liked to be the last customer and Mr. Martin would get really angry, but he’d always invite us to lunch.”

“Wow.”

She’s said it before, but she definitely would’ve liked Billy’s dad. He had flair – breaking into old mines, slipping in to his friend’s shop at the worst time just for the hell of it. Billy’s dad would have made a hell of a power ranger.

(Maybe he’d even be the one to claim and redeem the green power coin.)

“So I get why you want to be there at 12:25 but why did you want me to bring you?”

If the question sounds very insecure, it’s because it is. Since that conversation with Trini, she’s felt very much like a total failure as a person, second-guessing all of her relationships. Even this one.

“I don’t drive.”

She’s happy to find that at least she and Billy are still solid.

Curious, she asks, “Is it because we got hit by a train?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“Of course not,” Kim mumbles, lifting her eyebrows and smiling softly. “Why would driving into a train make anyone not want to drive?”

“It’s because my dad was teaching me how to drive.”

“But your dad’s been gone…” Kim does the math. “Billy, you were 10!”

“I never learned how to park.”

“That’s why you don’t drive? Because you can’t park?”

“My dad never taught me.”

Kim laughs as she pulls into the mall parking lot. She finds the first empty space and pulls into it, following the outline on the screen, but using her mirrors just to be sure that when she turns the car off, she’s parked almost perfectly between the yellow lines.

“Look,” she says. Billy opens the door, looks down, and then bends to look underneath her car as well. When he stands up again, she says, “I will teach you how to park.”

Billy beams and says, “I would’ve asked Jason but I’ve seen him park. It isn’t very good.”

Kim nods. She knows. She locks her car and walks into step with Billy, and frowns at him. She knows Jason can’t park. Billy knows Jason can’t park and still…

“So, Jason isn’t actually allowed to drive a car and he can’t park, but you have him drive you everywhere.”

Billy grins at that and says, “I like hanging out with him.”

“He likes you, too,” Kim says.

The phrasing isn’t exactly what she meant – even though it’s true, but Billy’s unfazed. “I know,” he says, and steps into the mall. She doesn’t know the last time he was here. He said Mr. Martin only moved his store to the mall recently, after Target bought out him and his whole block. Which sucks because the mall hasn’t updated their directory in two years, and honestly now that she’s inside? She doesn’t feel like wandering around.

It’s too much like _not_ window shopping.

Thankfully, Billy claps happily beside her and says, “We’re close. It’s up that escalator, on the third level.”

Perfect. It’s already past 12:15. They should be in and out – with minor difficulty; the number of parts Billy ordered might require two trips.

They ride the escalator to the second level, but the mall’s planning is so bad that they’re forced to near walk the whole of the second level just to get to the escalator to the third level. She groans, hoping that his shop is somewhere near the elevator.

It isn’t coincidental that she glances up as they pass the small clothing boutique. She can’t look at her feet forever and there isn’t much else to watch go by other than the stores.

It, is, however complete chance that after all these weeks -

“It’s still here.”

She wanders in through the doors, Billy following behind her.

“The store? Was it supposed to close?”

“No,” Kim says. She glances around – just to be safe, but even if the whole Angel Grove’s football team and cheerleading squad showed up right now, it wouldn’t matter. It wouldn’t change anything.

_It won’t change this anyway._

She pauses just short of actually reaching for the dress. She almost turns away – starts to turn away, but Billy reminds her that she’s not alone in her own head, “You meant the dress.” He pauses. “Did you want to buy it?”

“I’m not sure,” Kim says. She looks at it again. _Pretty and entirely non-functional._ “It’s the kind of dress you only wear once.”

“Like a wedding dress. Unless you get married more than once.”

“Unless you do that,” she laughs, but it’s half-hearted.

“It doesn’t have to be.” He gestures to her whole person with an excitement that has her looking at herself, too. “You can salvage it.”

She’d like to say that she shares the bright realization painted across his features, but she isn’t as hopeful. There’s more to the situation than a one-time wear dress.

She looks at it again. The pastel pink isn’t really her shade, but when she slides her fingers along the fabric she sees that it’s a trick of the sheer white covering, and underneath is a pink more suited for a Power Ranger than a Princess.

Taking that off would mean the wings coming off too, but a cut here and there, and it would make a perfect jacket patch.

“You see?” Billy asks.

She nods. “Sort of?” At his confused look, she says, “Thank you.”

His confusion deepens and then with a drawing back of his head, he says, “Wait. I’m not buying it for you. It isn’t your birthday for two months, six days, and-”

“Please don’t tell me you know what time I was born.”

“I don’t. I was waiting for you to fill it in.”

Coming back to the mall with Billy seemed like a safe idea when he asked for her help. It isn’t like going there with Jason or Zack would be, intense and taxing on her nerves – either with anxiety or annoyance. Going with Trini seemed so far out of the question that her brain refused to consider it. She thought that being with Billy would at least let her be able to look back on the last time she went shopping without reminding herself that she’s a careless idiot.

But now it feels more reckless than anything she could’ve possibly done because Billy considers things – not just as thoughts in his head, but he works them out aloud, and hearing him list all the possible ways she could make the dress she’s carrying into something better –

She finds herself echoing that. There’s more to the situation than the dress. There’s every misstep she’s taken from the beginning, and the beginning before that, and then there’s Trini herself. There’s a lot of factors, most of them working against her, others she isn’t so sure of, but it comes down to this: how is she going to salvage this relationship?

“I know I said you might be able to make a pair of shorts out of this but it would probably fall apart if you try. The fabric fibers aren’t strong enough. But the shirt would be fine.”

Right. She’ll have to start by talking it out.

 

-

 

Kim doesn’t knock.

She enters people’s bedrooms like she throws them off cliffs, without warning and with an apology that can’t really be classed as one – especially now, after Trini’s embarrassed herself so completely, in the one place she should feel safe walking around in her underwear.

“I’m really so sorry,” Kim repeats, her back still turned so she’s facing Trini’s new and improved bedroom wall. “Oh, fuck me.”

Okay, so maybe this isn’t the same kind of apology. At all.

“Kim, why did you break into my room?” Before she can reply, Trini adds, “I’m dressed now.”

Kim turns around so Trini can see the guilt twisting her features when she says, “Yeah, you lock your window.”

“Which is pretty useless. It doesn’t keep out psycho aliens or…”

Trini looks at Kim, really looks at her for the first time since she dropped her towel only to turn around and find Kim staring at her. Trini’s the one staring now, at the pink dress that is both familiar and entirely new. She’d thought it would look pretty on Kim, the kind of pretty that’s good for dinner parties with rich people. She’s sort of right; it does look pretty on Kim, but the kind that’s good for a _very_ good portion of Trini’s fantasies. Kim looks _hot_ and after having been nearly naked in front of her, Trini feels more than a little bothered.

“It was still there, when Billy and I went this morning. So, I bought it.”

Kim closes her eyes and when she opens them, the casual air is gone replaced with the same expression that had Trini regretting sharing the letters, begging her to forget the conversation. She just looks so scared – like when she begged them to “skip her” during their campfire confessions. Trini hates that look.

“I actually wasn’t going to buy it. I mean, how many places can I really wear this, and maybe it was my style last year but it definitely isn’t now.”

“Ouch.”

“No, wait – I didn’t mean it like that.” She sighs. “What I’m saying is, on the surface, not buying it was the right decision. But then Billy pointed out all the ways I could make it something that can work, something that can last and…”

_Huh?_

“Oh, fuck it. Screw the metaphor. Trini, I’m really sorry about telling Ty that we were dating and I’m really sorry for agreeing to just pretend that it was actually okay. I fucked up, again, and you probably should hate me but I don’t want you to. I wasn’t thinking and then I was thinking too much – if this sounds confusing, I swear it is way worse in my head.”

_Oh._

“Kimberly Hart.”

No matter the situation, no matter the speaker the full name _always_ works. Kim stops talking and stares at Trini instead, which, if she’s following the trail of Kim’s thoughts right, makes Trini uncomfortable for the right reasons. She walks over to Kim, inclining her head enough so that they’re eye to eye.

“If you’re trying to say that you want to be my real girlfriend, can you just say it? So I know whether the fact that you just caught me in my underwear should make me die of embarrassment or not.”

She holds her breath.

“Okay. I want you to be my real girlfriend.”

She lets it out.

“Oh, thank god.”

Her heart has now decided to run a marathon to the tune of whatever her brothers are listening to in the next room, and Trini is…content with that. She laughs and pushes at Kim’s shoulder with a frustrated huff. The fabric of her dress is even softer on, in sharp contrast to Kim’s defined muscles. With that new knowledge, she tucks her impulsive hands into the pockets of her sweats.

“How did you manage to be the worst girlfriend problem I’ve ever had? I didn’t think you even noticed what you were doing – I didn’t think you liked me like that. I’ve been so confused.” She shakes her head. _Serious understatement_. “At least the other girls were straightforward.”

It’s as shocking a confession to herself as Kim’s quick reply of “You want straightforward?” is to her whole system when she follows that up by taking Trini’s hand out of her pocket so she can thread their fingers together. Before she can process that, Kim puts a permanent stop to any and all thought processing with the press of her lips.

Did she really think Kim’s mouth was waiting to be kissed? Did she seriously have that thought? Without considering the other option?

She’ll go to hell before she admits that she feels like she’s been waiting her whole life for Kim to kiss her. Forget a cab, Uber, or Jason Scott – she will walk directly into hell before she admits that if dedicating her life to protecting the earth doesn’t work out, she’ll happily rededicate it to kissing Kim.

And holding her hand. Trini is more than willing to go that extra mile.

When they pull apart – in layman’s terms, when they’re forced to breathe and Trini’s bliss is cut short by “Baby shark do-do-do-do-do,” she falls back on her heels, hoping that it isn’t obvious, knowing that it totally is.

Too focused to rib her, apparently, Kim says, “Okay, but seriously, let’s talk about it this time so neither of us is confused.”

“The only thing I’m confused by is why you aren’t kissing me again.”

Trini goes red, which is fine because she’s been that shade since she stepped out the shower, but she still wishes she could manage to keep _something_ to herself.

(As terrifying as it is, though, that she’s holding hands with someone who knows every single thing she’s had to keep to herself for so long, it feels good. It feels damn good.)

“Baby Shark is on,” Kim says.

“You aren’t kissing me because my brothers are listening to Baby Shark?”

Kim nods and adopts what Trini calls her “inability to accurately mock someone” voice – the one where everyone she’s pretending to be sounds exactly the same whether they’re Zordon, Jason, or the cashier at the Krispy Kreme.

“I’m paying my respects to the death of good music.”

Trini scoffs. “I have never said that.”

“You’ve thought it.”

“I’ve thought a lot of things. A minute ago, I even thought you weren’t a total loser.”

Kim flutters her eyelashes, dipping her head again in a way that is totally obvious so there’s no point in calling it out.

“And now?”

In reply, Trini takes her free hand and presses the ‘L’ to Kim’s lips.

“Now, I think this loser should kiss me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> i have some ideas for expansions in this verse (i.e. scenes i cut because they were making the fic out of hand), esp on the team and jason/billy front so if you're interested lmk. hope you enjoyed ♥ happy valentines day!


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